3 Foods That Are Shockingly Good For You

Scientists like a good laugh as much as anyone, so they took people who were already fat and then fed those people cake for breakfast. But instead of gaining weight, the researchers found that eating cake or a similar dessert sweet in the morning could lead to significant weight loss. And there isn’t even any fine print: adding a breakfast sweet was the only “lifestyle change” these people made.

The key here is getting the sugary stuff out of the way early in the day. Your body is most active in the morning, especially in digesting food. You’re also giving it all day to use up the energy. Eating large evening meals often causes your body to just start storing (that’s called ‘fat’) because it doesn’t have anything to do with the energy you’ve given it.

2. Gelato as a Meal Replacement

If you’ve ever been to New Jersey, you know how much Italians love their spray tans. But if you’ve ever been to Italy, you know that real Italians love their gelato even more. So it should come as no surprise to learn that Italian scientists wanted to study their national food and it didn’t take too long for them to start singing gelato’s praises. Gelato has diverse nutritional value, containing proteins, sugars, fats and calories similar to a lunch-sized meal. So what did these enterprising scientists decide? You can safely skip lunch and go to the ice cream shop instead, earning them the rage of fad diet planners everywhere.

3. Chocolate is Good for Your Heart

It’s pretty common knowledge by now that chocolate (quality dark chocolate, not some Hershey’s vomit-scented knock-off) benefits blood pressure and heart function when consumed daily in moderate quantities. Of course, you can’t expect your prescription drug company to recognize that, but maybe your skin care company will think about adding chocolate to their product lines because it’s actually good for your skin, too.

And when you throw in the fact that the flavanols in chocolate improve muscle function and regeneration, you might ease up on that ridiculous home video workout routine you’re killing yourself with and run to the grocery store instead.